Surface treatment of TiO2 films for dye-sensitized solar cells using atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium DC pulse discharge plasma jet

In this paper, we report the utilization of the DC pulse discharge plasma jet technique as a means for the preparation of titanium oxide (TiO2) films on fluorine dope tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrates used for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The TiO2 film made on these experimental bases exhibited the BET specific surface area of 95 m2/g, the pore volume of 0.3 cm2/g and the TEM particle size of ∼25 nm. The DSCs made by the TiO2 film exhibited an energy conversion efficiency of 5.7% at 100 mW/cm2 light intensity. Consequently, we believe that the optimization between the specific surface area and photocurrent density of TiO2 film was achieved by the plasma surface treatment which also contributed to the improvement of energy conversion efficiency of DSCs.